Page images
PDF
EPUB

noticed, together with a list of men dead, specifying their names and the causes of death, whether from accident, disease, or suicide; whether occurring on board, on detached service, on shore, on leave, or in hospital. The name of each person dead is essentially necessary, to prevent one death being twice noticed, an error which, were it reported both from a hospital and the ship to which the man belonged, it would otherwise be difficult to avoid. By following out these plans the exact mortality of the service could be ascertained, without any great difficulty or much trouble. At present this cannot be accomplished without a long and patient examination of various data, involving an unnecessary waste of time and much labour, which in the end is unsatisfactory, inasmuch as it is impossible to arrive at anything like the correctness which ought to stamp the character of all statistical details, as arithmetical facts.

Moreover, at present there is not any means of forming even the most distant conception of the relative loss of service per man from sickness in any given force, in the course of a year; nor of the number of days' sickness attributable per man to each disease separately; or, in either case, of the mean loss of service in comparison with the number of attacks. These are points of considerable importance in a statistical point of view, and unless they can be ascertained, it will be impossible to form any correct estimate of the health of the navy in comparison with other bodies of men.

The additional information required to carry out these calculations being in the hands of the medical officers of the navy, it is to be hoped the time is not far distant when it will be generally furnished. For the

sake of system it will be necessary to add an additional · column to the sick list, in which to state the number of days each case was under treatment. Adding these together at the close of the year, and dividing the aggregate sum by the mean numerical strength, will of course give the proportional number of days' sickness per man for the year. The relative proportion of

sickness, with respect to different diseases, may also be ascertained. The additional trouble (if indeed it should be so considered) which these details would impose, divided amongst so many, would not be great, while the facilities they would afford, and the correctness they would insure in the compilation of the general details for the whole service, would be of the utmost importance.

There is still another object which would add greatly to the interest and value of the vital and medical statistics of the navy, and this cannot be effected at head-quarters unless by the employment of an extensive staff of clerks, namely, to class the whole of a ship's company by their ages into decennial periods, beginning at fifteen and terminating at fiftyfive, in order to ascertain the relative degrees of sickness and mortality in each of these stages of life. By a proper arrangement of these and the preceding data, in tabular forms, the relative amount of sickness at certain ages, and from every, or, at all events, from the most important diseases, might be deduced, and the relative degrees of health enjoyed not only in different squadrons, but in different ships, ascertained by a single glance, and with a degree of accuracy which it is impossible to arrive at by the present system.

SECTION XV.

STATISTICS.

Br G. R. PORTER, Esq.

THE population of any place or country must be considered as the groundwork of all statistical inquiry concerning it. We cannot form a correct judgment concerning any community until we shall have become acquainted with the number of human beings of which it is composed, nor until we shall have ascertained many points that indicate their condition, not only as they exist at the time of inquiry, but comparatively also with former periods.

In the section of this volume which is devoted to geographical observations, directions are given for collecting the actual numbers of the population, a branch of inquiry which properly falls within the province both of political geography and of statistics. The division of the inhabitants of any country into races, using different languages or dialects, belongs to the first named of the two sections, and need be no further noticed here.

The actual numbers of any population can never be so satisfactorily ascertained as by the interference of the Government, and the first inquiries upon the subject

should be for official enumerations. Where such do not exist, it may still be possible to procure data for satisfactory computations from governmental departments, and especially those connected with the taxation of the country; but it must be evident that, to render such data available, the circumstances under which it has been collected must, as far as possible, be ascertained and recorded. Where no official accounts can be made available, recourse should be had to private channels, giving the preference to such statements (if they exist) as may have been published in the country, and may thereby have been subjected to criticism and correction on the part of persons best qualified to form a judgment on the subject. Local registers of births and deaths are sometimes to be met with, where the central government has not interfered. Such were carefully kept in many parishes in England before any government census was undertaken. From such registers, comparing births with deaths, at various ages, through a series of years, the population of a country may be estimated with some approach to accuracy. The rate of mortality is a fact of much importance towards any useful knowledge of a country, and is naturally among the subjects of inquiry that should earliest command attention. If registers of burials, which record the ages at which the deaths occur, can be obtained, they would elucidate many points of great interest as to the condition of the people and the effect of the climate, and would besides afford means, in connexion with the number of births and marriages, for more nearly approximating towards an accurate estimate of the population. Where a census has been taken, a distinction will doubtless have been made

between the sexes; and if the ages also have been recorded, the tables will themselves afford means for testing their general accuracy, as it may be assumed that the proportion of adult males-twenty years of age and upwards-are about one-fourth of the whole population. Where no census has been taken, it may be possible to ascertain the number of fighting men, that is, of males between given ages. Should all other sources of information be wanting, it will then be necessary to have recourse to oral information, in estimating the correctness of which the observer must avail himself of such aids as present themselves. The question whether a community is increasing, stationary, or diminishing in number, may be judged from the amount of buildings in progress, or of houses untenanted or in a state of decay. If any account is taken, for purposes of taxation or otherwise, of the number of inhabited houses, and especially if these should be divided into different scales, a little personal observation as to the average number of inhabitants to be found in each will furnish valuable information concerning the population; but to do this, the inquirer must inform himself concerning the domestic habits of various classes of the people; the necessity for which caution will be made apparent by the fact, that while in all England the average number of inhabitants to each house is under 5, the average number in the metropolitan county exceeds 7; while the number to each house in Dublin is 123, which is double the average number in all Ireland, where the house accommodation is generally of the most wretched description.

Having ascertained, as well as circumstances allow, the numbers of the people, it becomes of importance to

« PreviousContinue »